NEWS

President-elect Donald Trump waves to the crowd as he leaves the New York Times building following a meeting. Picture by Mark Lennihan AP/Press Association Images

20:15 22 Nov 2016
Stephen McNeice
20:15 Tuesday 22 November 2016

US President-elect has moved to disavow the alt-right amid continued controversy over the loose-knit fringe group.

The Southern Poverty Law Center - which aims to "combat hate, intolerance and discrimination" - describes the alt-right as "a set of far-right ideologies, groups and individuals whose core belief is that 'white identity' is under attack by multicultural forces using 'political correctness' and 'social justice' to undermine white people and 'their' civilisation".

The alt-right - which has received more mainstream attention after being heavily criticised by Hillary Clinton during a campaign speech - has been increasingly accused of promoting white nationalism.

Yesterday, The Atlantic released a video of Richard Spencer - the man who popularised the term 'alt-right' and head of the white supremacist National Policy Institute - and a crowd at a conference shouting 'Hail Trump' as some in attendance performed Nazi salutes.

The video led to activists calling for Mr Trump to condemn the actions.